Account of a Fallen Lord

Stratics Veteran

Greetings Sonoma,
As I return to the land of Sosaria, pondering the many long nights of Adventure and Slaughter, I began to think is this the end? To answer that question I thought back from the day myself and two other roommates received a beta test copy of Ultima Online, which we thought was the greatest thing since the release of Blizzards Diablo, at the time we shared one computer which was an High end Pentium 120mhz with 12mb’s of ram, and a 14.4kbps dial up model with a slip/ppp connection.

I quickly worked on acquiring my very own system part by part nearing the official release of Ultima Online, which ended up as a Pentium 133mhz, 32mb of ram, 1gig hard drive and a $160 Diamond Vipper330 4mb video card, set up with Windows 95, ICQ and at the time Roger Wilco was the voice program. I went to the midnight release at the local Computer City purchased my Collectors addition of Ultima for $75 which came with a pewter UO pin and Cloth map of Britainia. After installing the game and followed by three weeks of server-downs and crashes, and buggy internet service, myself and roommates managed to GM stealing, snooping and hiding and quickly became the greatest nuisance in Trinsic Bank (which was the main meeting spot for players) at the time. Spending the first three months in UO mainly pillaging homes near the Trinsic city walls, stealing house keys, lockpicking chests around the city, adding archery to the mix and started “grey killing” inside the city for loot, which led me to to a rune and key to a large brick home in the Trinsic swamp, where I met a few friends as we began using the house to store our spoils of war and loot, without a guildstone we created our own little guild based on Jesters hats, and matching deathrobes and red aprons running around PKilling anyone who would travel outside of Trinsic or venture into the Trinsic swamp. From this point we traveled into dungeons like Destard, aquired runes to Ice Isle and made Deceit our new home away from home, learning the bone knight wall was the way to gain skill..Mundayne quickly became a skilled Archer/Mage which I soon raided the wall with my small band of friends frequently for action…at some point I moved into PKilling at prime locations trying to move into the boards where I teamed up with my brother in law Vemax, Rat Valley, Orc Fort, Destard, Brit X-Roads, Bucs Den.

I became well known for being one of the first to make exceptional heavy crossbows which was the dominating weapon at the time, packed with full Fortification Plate and Exceptional heavy crossbow, and bags of healing potions, I began adding to my murder counts, hiding was a must skill then, with many small bands running around head hunting PK’s, permanent stat loss for any red was no fun in those days so you had to be careful. I would frequently run into DARK PURIST which we would sit and chat a while as we waited for the next unlucky “blue” to run by. Never reaching number one on the Murder boards like my old friend DARK, but hovering on the boards nonetheless for months until a freak “lost connection” happened and I log into a grey screen with you were “pwned”. I realized it was very hard as a red to regain the skills that I had lost, and created a new and improved Mundayne as a Swords/Mage double-Halberd hitting monster, and then another Lady InRed which was my PK Mage terrorizing when she could. Mundayne later joined ORDER with Buck in ARA (Arafels Royal Army), which consumed me for almost a year.

RIP, as we missed Arafel she was taken from us in an auto accident, and with it (ARA), from then on I was roaming around Occlo and snuck up on this poor archer and PK’d him, I took what spoils I needed for my murdering profession and resurrected this soul, we began talking and from that point very good friends, even today his L shaped house is still located on Occlo island(which is still one of the oldest houses in UO), from then on we would spent our game time sparing, dueling night after night, and using our Tamers to fund the habbit. This was about the rise of SAS, which was a lot of fun for us targeting them out around different dungeons for some much needed action, some of my favorite nights back then was between us and SAS(sons of satan) in Deceit. During the phasing out of SAS, Sonoma slowed down, my friends phased out of the game due to health issues and I moved into the Pacific shard running around with different groups through T2A, then into Factions at which ever point they hit their peak with very large battles, Mundayne at this point became a PvP Peace tamer to combat all the other PvP Tamers at the time, and later just a farming Peace/Tamer that he still is today. I quickly found myself with a lot of Tamer friends, comparing riches, which deep down inside I wanted the fight!. My two good friends Greylord and Zandora were preparing for the release of AoS, I created two characters to be ready for this expansion, Mun’d Dulane and Seeker of Souls whom were to be each a Paladin and Necromancer. Quickly Mun’d became a dominated force at the Popular Yew Gate during the release of AOS, and Seeker quickly became red from his first night out in dungeons, champ spawns, which is where I found my new favorite past time “Champ Spawns”. The action was great, the rewards were great, and it brought every type of player out. This is where I ran into Dracus, Achiro, Cecil and Ooji at the start of FL (Empire of the Fallen Lords, Pacific) we quickly dominated and controlled much of Felucca and champ spawns during this time.
Several months of dominating, and putting forth the effort into the guild, it just didn’t feel like a family, and to many clicks were formed inside of the guild, knowing of several others that used FL only to spy for their own spawn gain at off peak, FL peaked at something around 400 members, but yet I couldn’t get my two friends in the guild, I then spoke to Ooji and moved back to my smaller home shard Sonoma with my friends and we planned on spawning in peace, since Sonoma seemed tame compared to Pacific/Atlantic at the time.

…this is where EFL came about and the rise and fall of a Lord…

After hunting for places for our new houses, we began collecting resources to build up and start spawning, Grey and Zand created new characters called Necro and The Wretched Ice, we were a band of three ….not knowing at this same very time a group moved from Atlantic shard to dominate champ spawns on the not so busy Sonoma, and this group I believe was *P* with Beerman/HEIMDALL/Princess Ultima and a few others. I was out farming ingots when Beerman PK’d me, trash talked me, then another of his members would hide and “rez kill” me and my friends, this is about the time it clicked…and my exact words were “oh yeah”?, let me show you how this is done.” I quickly went back to Pacific talked with Ooji and would be pulling Seeker of Souls from FL on pacific and extending in my own way on Sonoma, and would leave on good terms.

I quickly placed a small house around Oasis, bought the stone and took upon the name EFL (Empire of the Fallen Lords, Sonoma) at this time a few Feluccan guilds were forming such as COP, ICU, and if I’m not mistaking 3F. I went around champ spawns poking, raiding with heart and soul alone or with my two friends keeping an eye out for good recruits (recruits that were not gate fighters) I ran into a guy named Mudcat, we had a good chat and he would work with me at pushing *P* away from our spawns, he created Kimo as his red character, I then moved Mund Du’lane over and had 2 reds, keeping Seeker of Souls mainly as a spawn raiding toon and EFL Persona, and later adding Quasar, Kobe’d, I work at Sonic, at this time Lacrimo, Wasp were on the fence, but added Suicidal Gnome. With this group we felt unstoppable, I quickly set up training sessions, Teamspeak, UOAM, and created our own EFL guild charter and strict rules, which included FUN and teamwork. We made an effort to keeping a good name for ourselves but still gaining respect in the PvP world. We then met up with Ghost Knight of ICU (Insane Clown Unit), as part of the EFL charter, we did not nor ever will Ally with another guild, if we go at it, we go at it alone, then led into the engulfing of ICU which brought us some great players such as One-Eyed Jack/Marius Phoebius/Sly, Snakebite, and GK went solo along with Wasp and Lacrimo they were in it more for the PvP, we were in it for the Spawns. During our raids, we started pushing the other Fel guilds out, and forced them into allying with each other such as *P* & COP, PAS made attempts to hunt us out, after being successful for a few months, we needed a new larger guild house, larger teamspeak…I spent my own personal resources, created a guild house in the Trinsic Swamp where I first began my Murderous Professions. (this circle is now complete), quickly organized a Dark Council, which we treated ourselves as knights of the round table, equal at sharing the thoughts and directions of the guild between the council and the guildmaster. We would meet weekly, assign roles, we had some of the wives directing an activity committee for the guild for guild events, doom spawns, craft nights, to the point there was always something to do in the guild and it became fun enough we had amazing attendance.

Rules & Organization, I began to spend all of my spare time, organizing the guild, taking care of its security, becoming the “glue” of the guild, peacekeeping, PR, setting up and training new potential PK’s, Organizing Major Spawns, Harrowers. Interviewing members, updating forums and websites, dividing spoils of war to the members. The one sole rule I would hold any member to was you must maintain one red character, PvP train twice a month with the guild at the training room, and be Johnny on the spot when called to raid a spawn, or do a guild scheduled spawn. This led on for about two years, to the point we could say we controlled Fel, we controlled spawns, and it started to get boring for some of us. This is when the Brit Gate started happening, or luring people to our guildhouse for long fun nights, during this time Flood, Famine and and a flux of Asian guilds started appearing around. At this time I needed a break from the game and time I had spent the past two years building the guild up, and was going on a three month leave, and leaving the guild in care of my two friends Zandora and Greylord for my return.

Upon returning after a few months, the guild was still going strong, they did adopt gate fighting because Spawns were almost inactive, and a FLF sub guild was created with DeathClaw and Chad Sexington for factions. We began to quickly bring back action to spawns by announcing prime time harrowers, major spawns, and round two started, and quickly dominated once again…FL on Pacific was having trouble with an influx of guilds, and out of loyalty to the name, myself and a few members of EFL moved over to Pacific (Mund Du’Lane, Kimo, Quasar, Kob’d, and a few others) We did this for a few months, upon leaving this time I passed the lead off to Sly, whom did not want the burden of leading the guild at the time, but I knew was strong and caring enough to take care of its members in the example we kept it in.

…The fall….

I received a call from my good friends from EFL saying, we don’t think EFL will last, at the time some of its prime members were leaving for World of Warcraft release, Flood was introduced to EFL, and they started creating alliances, COP began to rise, and the mentality of the guild changed. I quickly with Kob’d and Quasar, moved back to Sonoma, Kimo had gone onto World of Warcraft, and was quickly met with Flood saying “who are you? You aren’t welcomed in our guild” and began to turn its newer members against me, with this going on, some of the older members moved over to other smaller guilds, a few into COP, and the guildstone was in control of some newer member. This did not sit well with me at all and I created a character name Mirage to counteract Floods new ‘secrete weapon” and was determined to push EFL into the ground before I saw it sit in the hands of bank sitters and Flood, I then joined into COP, brought a few of the older EFL members with me, and continued to push with COP in fel, and would ride down the remnants of the new EFL “blues” and guildhouse.

A year passed, and I started up my account again, along with my wife to enjoy UO as our past time again, I saw a few blue EFL sitting at the Luna bank, and was greeted respectfully, I quickly began talking with them, seeing how things where with the guild, sharing old memories, guild charters, although seemed to be a good group of folks, it just wasn’t the same EFL I helped create, and lost interest with it, getting into treasure maps, fishing..then slowly phasing into World of Warcraft, until now, recently back to Ultima Online in 2011, fifteen years later and warm welcomed by PAS, whom have always been a very good group of players since the beginning, yet PAS are very good people, but I still have fight in me…where will it take me next…but for now I come back as a humble peasant, fallen from Lordship.

-Mundayne/Seeker of Souls/Mund Du’Lane/Mirage

Here is a list of the True members of EFL, that I never got a chance to thank for their friendships, and dedication.

Stratics VeteranStratics Legend

This was an excellent read that took me back. I've recently returned to UO after departing just after the Mondain's Legacy release, and I saw the emptiness that is Sonoma; an emptiness I didn't remember. As I sold my old account years ago in order to get some closure and finality (fool as I am, I now know), I picked up another's account and am relearning the game after all of its many changes. I toured the other shards and saw Atlantic to be quite popular, so I transported my characters there, where I am now pushing down roots.

I still miss Sonoma and the fun I had there from when I started in Renaissance. I recall taking my attempt at a macermage named Rick to the bone wall, working up skills and gathering up vanqs as the foul liches were beaten senseless. Fel taught me that I was not ready for pvp, and so I eventually learned the ways of Felucca and developed Keel, a solo blue fighting off the more unsavory macromage reds with a poisoned kryss (which transformed into an amazing weapon when AoS came out) and a self-preserving Hiding skill. I miss the days of my thief in LuT, harassing the "hardcore" players and snatching up goods to sell back to them at discounted prices; of joining factions just to steal up sigils and hang out with Dor at the YMCA while hued purple. I even remember the rise of the stealth archers, and creating Vitus to be one to combat this new template that was giving the long-reigning macromages a run for their Artifact-buying money. Out of a desire for something more, I joined a fairly small, very aggressive warring guild named TUO, and we engaged in battle from Luna bank to EM events with anyone who would have us (especially the ever-present ZOG).

I remember MANY of the names you listed, and it stirs anew nostalgia I've battled over the years, a longing that finally won out and saw me revisiting Sosaria. Thank you for this post; it brings back times that are far too distant.

Stratics VeteranStratics Legend

My eyes got heavy. I started nodding off, went and made coffee. Still didn't work. Smashed face on monitor. Woke up and finished the read but had to reread it in the morning. My pain meds kicked in. heh. It was long but I managed to get through it. I vaguely can remember what happened a week ago but thanks for the journal. In all honesty, I never cared nuch about names. Only names that stuck in my mind were my friends. Although there are some ppl there I know.

That brings back great memories! I'm pretty sure that's me in the hunters headdress in the picture. That was my first real exposure to spawning and house fighting. I killed a lot of people with arrows from that house. lol

I had to think about it a while, but I believe ICU was Intense Cruelty Unit. I forgot that Wasp was in it. We were next door neighbors at the time, so there were lots of guild dueling and fighting in front of our houses. It definitely made me a better player.

That makes me wonder...where is my hunters headdress??? My archer isn't wearing a hat. I seem to be missing quite a bit of stuff and I unpacked my house before I left, so it's not like I lost it. In fact, one of my characters is missing 5 of his 7 skill...a mage tamer with no magery or taming skill. I would think maybe they were on a soulstone, but those are missing too. Ugh!

Stratics Veteran

Clicked on the Sonoma shard forums by accident and found this awesome post by Mundayne. The lore and history of players and guilds is one of the unique things that make Ultima Online such a great game.

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